LINA AL-KHATIB

Idlib -The hardships of the war, as well as displacement, forced migration, and the loss of breadwinners for many families lead women in Idlib to beg and seek help from others in order to make a living and cover their families' needs.

Madiha Al-Noufus (44), a widowed woman from Idlib, sleeps on the sidewalk in the city's popular market, begs for money from passersby to look after her five children after her husband was killed in a military operation in 2018. “After my husband died, I became responsible for my children's livelihoods, and when I gave up looking for work, I had to go out and begged for money from people,” she told NuJINHA.

Madiha Al-Noufus continued to talk as follows: “It was difficult to see my children's misery and deprivation, so I stretched my hand, compelled to provide food for them and cover what they need. I don’t say to anyone that I beg for money for my family because begging is embarrassing me.”

Hanan Ibrahim (41), who was displaced from Saraqib's countryside to a refugee camp on the outskirts of Atma, Turkey's border city, goes out every day with her two children to ask for money. She explained her agony by saying: "My husband was injured in his spine that rendered him unable to work. I have seven children, one of whom is disabled. I have to go out with two of my kids, ages 10 and 11, to beg for money from strangers to take care of my family.”

Hanan Ibrahim told us that she had previously collected garbage for sale to earn money for her family but then she was injured in her hand with a sharp object and she had to undergo surgery, preventing her from working.

She stated that her family’s financial condition was good before being forcibly displaced. “We worked as farmers in our hometown but we lost our only source of income after being displaced from our town in early 2020.”

Being beggars, especially women beggars, are the most vulnerable ones to be abused. They face sexual exploitation or become victims of theft and drug trafficking.

Safia al-Jamoul (31) is a woman being forcibly displaced from Khan Sheikhoun to Idlib after her husband abandoned her with three children and moved to Turkey with his second wife; she hasn't heard from him since then. Safia does not have a source of income to take care of her children, so she began to beg for money. She told us she was sexually abused by a shopkeeper, “I was asked by an old man to enter the store and clean it for a sum of money, so I entered. I didn’t expect he would sexually abuse me because he was an old man. But I was astonished when he started verbally assaulting me, so I run out.”

"If I had found a job, I would not have begged,” she said, "but poverty and misery have made us easy prey for the dishonest.”

When Rimas Al-Hashem, a 29-year-old social worker from Sarmada, north of Idlib, was asked about the reasons that pushed women to beg, she said, "In addition to low wages and deteriorating living conditions, poverty remains the most important reason, forcing women to engage in beggary in order to meet the needs of their families. Another cause is the increasing costs of food, which have left many people unable to get even the most basic necessities of life.”

Rimas Al-Hashem does not believe that some people utilize beggary as a lucrative and easy way to become wealthy and collect money. She thinks that fooling people with good intentions confuses us to distinguish between the true and masked needy.

Rimas Al-Hashem recommends a number of measures to combat beggary. Achieving the principle of social solidarity, activating the role of local councils and support of humanitarian organizations, and developing livelihood projects can help people to not beg for money. “All humanitarian organizations working in northern Syria should provide courses for women to have a job, to allow them to earn a living and achieve self-sufficiency. We must raise awareness in order to eliminate the beggary phenomena. There are women who have been victims of war and poverty and have been forced to beg for a living in order to survive. All they want is to have a job to meet the needs of their children”